USC Bucket List Class: Sailing

USC’s Atlantis sailboat that I’ll be taking out this semester with my friends!

Being a second semester senior means getting first choice of what classes I’m getting to take. And this semester I’ve chosen to take Nautical Science 101, more commonly known as Sailing! It’s a great addition to my engineering schedule which includes Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Air Pollutants, and Wastewater Treatment Design.

During this course, we have lectures on safety, terminology, and how to sail our boats. We also go out once or twice to see some of USC’s sailboats in Long Beach, getting a better understanding of the vessels as well as learning basics like rope tying. In April, I’ll also be taking an overnight sailing trip with 4 of my friends in the class. We’ll take a about 40-foot boat out to Catalina Island or another destination around LA. I can’t wait!

I always said I was going to take this course, and I’m so happy to be finally doing it. It’s a great class to have an engineering perspective on, as a lot of the technical concepts are easy for me to grasp because of my past classes such as Fluid Dynamics. I definitely recommend it if you have the time, even if you’ve never been on a sailboat before.